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Inspectors General Council Fights Back Against OLC Opinion Substantially Curtailing DOJ-IG Authority, CIA Six Months Without IG, and Much More: FRINFORMSUM 8/6/2015
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency have sent a letter to Congress asking it to pass legislation affirming "the independent authority of Inspectors General to access without delay all information and data in an agency's possession that an Inspector General deems necessary to execute its oversight functions under the law." The letter was sent in response to a July 20, 2015, Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion that requires the DOJ-IG to seek permission to review documents pertinent to an investigation, even going so far as to state that "the Department of Justice itself decides whether access by the DOJ-IG is warranted – placing the agency that the DOJ-IG oversees in the position of deciding whether to grant the Inspector General access to information necessary to conduct effective and independent oversight." The IG Council views this as a potentially serious challenge to every agency IG, and a possible roadblock for IGs "to get permission to review sensitive documents from the very agencies they are monitoring."
The CIA's beleaguered inspector general, David Buckley, resigned six months ago, and the Obama administration is facing criticism for not yet nominating a replacement – delaying sensitive internal investigations, like the one into the drone strike that killed Warren Weinstein, an American hostage being held by Al Qaeda in Pakistan, in the process. In February Buckley released his report finding that five CIA officials improperly monitored Senate Intelligence Committee staff working on the CIA Torture Report; while his report admonished the involved officials, the agency opted not to punish them. A CIA panel handpicked by Director John Brennan, "in what was widely seen as an embarrassing rebuke to Buckley," went so far as to clear the officials of any wrongdoing, concluding that the officials had acted reasonably in the face of a potential security breach. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to President Obama in June asking him to nominate Buckley's replacement, but the White House has yet to suggest one. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists called the move "discouraging," and the Project on Government Oversight's Danielle Brian said "It's clear to me it's not a priority of this administration to have strong inspectors general."
A FOIA lawsuit brought by the New York Times has won the declassification and release of documents on the Protect America Act, filling in gaps on the evolution of post-9/11 warrantless surveillance. The Protect America Act, the predecessor to the FISA Amendments Act, was passed in August 2007 and permitted warrantless surveillance on domestic soil provided "the target was a foreigner abroad. The law permitted the NSA to immediately begin using its power, even before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved its procedures." The documents are from 2007 and 2008 and "Some are entirely new to the public, and some were previously released but have now been reprocessed to see if additional information could be left unredacted."
FOIA-obtained records played a big role in showing that the Air Force gave Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is currently campaigning for president on the assertion he's a "battle-tested leader" with "a lifetime of military service", special treatment "with few expectations in return." The Air Force promoted Graham twice during his first decade in Congress "even though documents in his military personnel file reveal that he did little or no work. Later, the Pentagon gave the military lawyer a job assignment in the Air Force Reserve that he highlighted in his biography for several years but never performed." Graham received credit for performing an average of a day and a half of work a year with the Air Force between 1995 and 2005. Graham is often cited for his work between 2006 and 2015 as a senior instructor at the Judge Advocate General's School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala, although "Air Force officials said they had no record of Graham teaching any courses on behalf of the school or even visiting it during that period."
The Air Force's new instructions on Media Operations clarifies that employees are not to use force against journalists who do not obey instructions regarding classified information, and "generally favors constructive engagement with the news media, both on principle and out of self-interest." The instructions outline crisis communications in addition to media operations, and emphasizes that "the primary responsibility for protecting classified information lies with the Air Force, not the reporter."
The Guardian recently published an in-depth expose based on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's research on contractors "working in the processing, exploitation and dissemination (PED) of intelligence" for military drone strikes. The information, gleaned from interviews, the FOIA, and public sources, notes that about one in ten drone controllers is a contractor, posing potentially troubling implications for transparency. Contractors are not supposed to perform inherently governmental tasks, and the Air Force maintains that it keeps "contractors out of sensitive, decision-making positions." George Washington University law school's Laura Dickinson notes, "It's not that these contractors are necessarily doing a bad job, it's that our legal system of oversight isn't necessarily well equipped to deal with this fragmented workforce where you have contractors working alongside uniformed troops."
Last week Archive Director Tom Blanton penned a memorable op-ed in the Washington Post, pushing back against dubious secrets and securocrats' efforts to use Hillary Clinton's emails to stem transparency by requesting the DOJ open a security referral into their handling. Blanton, arguing compellingly that America misguidedly classifies too much information, said, "The word is the Cold War is over, yet Cold War secrecy rules still control the government's information systems." Blanton further noted that the "best defense of an open society is open information. We are not safer in the dark." Despite the potential "egregious waste of time and money" involved in re-reviewing documents that were not sensitive enough to warrant classification when they originated, this week it was reported that the FBI – a DOJ component – was already looking into the security of Clinton's emails, her server, and a thumb drive in her lawyer's possession that holds copies of the files.
Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet refused to accept a police report identifying his military was responsible for burning two teenage protesters -Rodrigo Rojas de Negri and Carmen Gloria Quintana- alive in July 1986, according to declassified US documents recently posted by the Archive. One heavily censored CIA intelligence report highlighted in the posting, titled "Government of Chile Pressure to Drop Investigation and Prosecution of Rojas Case," shows that regime officials intimidated judges and lawyers and intervened to stall legal efforts in the courts to bring those responsible to justice.
The Archive's definitive collection of primary source documents about the dropping of the atomic bomb at the end of WWII has been updated to mark the 70th anniversary of the bombings. New documents reveal, among other things, that a few months after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General Dwight D. Eisenhower commented that, "he had hoped that the war might have ended without our having to use the atomic bomb." See this document and read the whole posting here.
Today's #tbt pick is chosen with the Archive's recent receipt of 900 declassified Henry Kissinger telephone calls – telcons –, the result of a FOIA lawsuit filed earlier this year. Today's #tbt document pick is a September 16, 1973, telcon recording a conversation between Kissinger and President Nixon. Highlighted in a 2008 posting by Archive Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh, the document recounts their "first substantive conversation following the military coup in Chile…When Nixon asks if the U.S. 'hand' will show in the coup, Kissinger admits 'we helped them' and that '[deleted reference] created conditions as great as possible.' The two commiserate over what Kissinger calls the 'bleating' liberal press. In the Eisenhower period, he states, 'we would be heroes.' Nixon assures him that the people will appreciate what they did: 'let me say they aren't going to buy this crap from the liberals on this one.'"
Happy FOIA-ing!
This op-ed originally appeared in The Washington Post.
Warning: If you hold a security clearance, reading this column could expose you to information that potentially violates your security agreement. Reading this column will certainly expose you to information that is currently classified by some securocrats, though not by others.
By Tom Blanton
The inspectors general of the State Department and the intelligence community have made a security referral to the Justice Department regarding Hillary Clinton's e-mails on the grounds that some of them were "potentially classified."
So is this column.
Watch out: Your clearance is at stake.
Let me get the suspense over with. Here's a classified fact: We, the United States, based medium-range ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads in Turkey in 1962, which angered Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev so much that he put his own into Cuba.
Wait: I've read all about that. It's been declassified, hasn't it?
Well, yes. Except — in the immortal words of John F. Kennedy — "there's always some son of a bitch who doesn't get the word."
The word is the Cold War is over, yet Cold War secrecy rules still control the government's information systems.
The Defense Department still can't bring itself to declassify nukes in Turkey, and Italy, and the 50 or so other countries where we idiotically stationed them during the Cold War.
Here at the National Security Archive, in our "Dubious Secrets" series, we have published hundreds of U.S. government documents that one office or official considers declassified, while another insists must stay secret. Whom do you listen to?
We have two versions of the same page of White House e-mail, addressed to then-deputy national security adviser Colin Powell, with the top and bottom blacked out from one review, and the middle blacked out from another, 10 days later. Turns out it was the same reviewer both times. So goes the highly subjective process of classification.
But let's talk about Clinton. Thank goodness she used a private e-mail server when she was secretary of state. If she had used the State Department system, practically none of her e-mail would survive. That's how bad State's electronic archiving was then. Instead, the State Department has 30,000 of her messages, and history is becoming much the wiser. Her critics, not so much.
Now, the same folks who clamored to see those messages seem to want to lock them up in classified vaults. Foolishness. They intend to redact the e-mails, thus putting red flags right on messages that circulated for years in unclassified form, thus highlighting the secrets they contain, if there really are any. Keeping the e-mails unclassified would actually be the best way to protect anything sensitive — through obscurity.
There were significant efficiency gains for our national security when the secretary of state ran her main e-mail account in unclassified form. No artificial barriers to information sharing. A bright line against including truly classified documents. A standing rebuke to the massive overclassification all around her.
I've seen a couple-million pages of documents that were classified when the government put them on paper or computer screens. I can say from experience that few deserved such consideration.
There are real secrets. This is where I diverge from the Julian Assanges and the Chelsea Mannings of the world. I don't want the designs of binary chemical warheads getting out, nor the identities of any brave Iranian or Chinese voices who talk to our embassies or CIA stations. The bottom lines of our diplomats in negotiations, I think we should keep to ourselves until such time as the deals are done.
But the real secrets make up only a fraction of the classified universe, and no secret deserves immortality. In fact, essential to the whole idea of democratic government is that secret deals with dictators will come out eventually, not least to deter the worst deals from being made.
WikiLeaks produced hysteria in Washington with its large-scale release of U.S. diplomatic cables in 2010. The House Judiciary Committee asked me to talk about whether lawmakers should amend the Espionage Act to prosecute those guys. Bad idea, I said. I predicted that there would be little damage to real national security because most classified cables can be published within a few years with no harm done.
I showed Congress the estimates over the years of how much gets classified that doesn't deserve to be. Ronald Reagan's executive secretary for the National Security Council, Rodney B. McDaniel, said 90 percent. Thomas H. Kean, the Republican head of the 9/11 Commission, said 75 percent of what he saw that was classified should not have been.
In fact, the congressional inquiry into 9/11 concluded that secrecy had kept the American people — our best allies in the fight against terrorism — from engaging with the threat they faced. The only responders with enough information to disrupt any of the Sept. 11 attacks were the passengers on United Flight 93, who heard through their cellphones what was happening on other planes and attempted to retake control of their own, saving who knows how many lives in the process.
The best defense of an open society is open information. We are not safer in the dark.
Those inspectors general poring over Clinton's e-mails need to get back to their transparency and accountability jobs, where they should focus on opening — not closing — the files that will empower a free citizenry to protect our country and ourselves, and hold our leaders to account.
Tom Blanton is director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The Archive won the George Polk Award in 2000 for "piercing self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in search for the truth, and informing us all."
IG's Want to Open Security Referral into State Department's Handling of Clinton Records; Focus on Trees and Not Forest of FOIA/Classification Problems.
The inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community have asked the Department of Justice to open a security referral to determine if the Department of State inadvertently released Hillary Clinton emails that contained classified information. (The IGs did not ask the DOJ to launch a criminal inquiry "into whether sensitive government information was mishandled" as initially reported by the New York Times.) The IGs requested the review after determining five emails in the trove of tens of thousands Clinton turned over to the State Department contained information from five intelligence agencies that, while not marked classified at time they were on her server, were in fact "secret." The request for a security referral, according to Secrecy News' Steven Aftergood, "is a recipe for paralysis," and the Archive's Director Tom Blanton says, "The government would be better off dropping any classification claim, both as a matter of security, and of resources."
State's Under Secretary of State for Management, Patrick Kennedy, said in a June 29 memo that they were seeking the referral over concerns that Clinton's personal account housed "hundreds of potentially classified emails."
Clinton has maintained that none of the emails in her personal account were classified.
While Clinton undoubtedly should have taken measures to preserve her emails with the State Department (the Archive's full analysis of her sole use of private email can be found here), the IG's request for a security referral, and the likely retroactive classification of documents that would result, underpins broader problems of government-wide overclassification that ought to be at the fore of the debate.
Unredacted reported earlier this month on the State Department's release of 3,000 pages (the first batch out of a total of 55,000 pages) of Clinton's emails – at 9 PM on a Tuesday night, and the Department's decision to ultimately redact portions of two dozen of them – even going out of its way to fully redact a 16-page speech Clinton gave to the Council of Foreign Relations in 2009 using the "withhold it because you want to" Exemption 5. The State Department hid this unclassified document in its entirety despite the incredibly high public interest in the records and Clinton's expressed desire to see all of the emails released in full. Archive FOIA Project Director Nate Jones said at the time that using the oft-abused Exemption 5 to withhold this document is an "egregious waste of time and money."
All of the redacted emails out of the first batch of releases are unclassified, and while "their contents were apparently not sensitive enough to national security at the time to have required a higher classification status" they must now, confoundingly, be redacted in part or in full.
What's worse is that this "egregious waste of time and money" will balloon exponentially with a security referral. The Justice Department has yet to announce if they will open one, and hopefully they will decide in the negative.
In 2010 National Security Archive director Tom Blanton appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, providing testimony concerning the Espionage Act and whether it should be amended to prosecute Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. Blanton showed the Committee estimates over the years of how much information gets classified that doesn't deserve to be. Blanton noted that Ronald Reagan's own executive secretary for the National Security Council said 90%, and that the Republican head of the 9/11 Commission who saw all the most recent Osama Bin Laden intelligence said that 75% of what he saw that was classified should not have been.
Need another example of overclassification? The latest report from the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), housed at the National Archives and responsible to the President for policy and oversight of the government-wide security classification system, showed that the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) continues to overrule agency classification decisions in Mandatory Declassification Review appeals nearly 75% of the time.
Blanton noted in regards to Clinton during his Senate testimony earlier this year that, ironically, because of the State Department's terrible electronic record keeping,1 Clinton's use of a private "likely preserved more of her e-mails there than the State Department systems would have done had she exclusively used a state.gov account." The public will likely get to see many more of them much sooner, too.
The DOJ should decide that it doesn't make any sense to spend finite resources to retroactively classify emails that were in Clinton's possession when, in all likelihood, there are no real secrets there, and the State Department and intelligence community officials should spend their own time and resources fixing systemic issues with their respective FOIA administrations rather than focusing on one felled tree in a forest of FOIA failures.
1. A 2015 Department of State OIG report found State's e-mail archiving system, ironically named SMART, goes almost entirely unused. The report found that State Department "employees have not received adequate training or guidance on their responsibilities for using those systems to preserve 'record emails.'" In 2011 State Department employees only created 61,156 record e-mails out of more than a billion e-mails sent. In other words, roughly .006% of DOS e-mails were captured electronically.↩
FOIA Oversight Reports, Possible Security Referral over Clinton Emails, and Much More: FRINFORMSUM 7/31/2015
The National Security Archive recently updated its listing of previously released reports on agencies' compliance with the FOIA with more than two dozen various Inspector General reports. The Archive is publishing the reports in an effort to assist the FOIA Advisory Committee's FOIA Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee, which Archive FOIA Project Director Nate Jones sits on, identify what current authorities for oversight exist, and areas where there are opportunities for additional oversight. The subcommittee continues to encourage members of the public to submit reports that the subcommittee might have missed, and help studying the content of the reports. Suggestions of additional documents and FOIA Oversight and Accountability strategies may be submitted to https://ogis.archives.gov/foia-advisory-committee/contact-us-submit-comments.htm.
Last week the New York Times erroneously reported that the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community asked the Department of Justice to launch a criminal inquiry "into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state." The real story was that the IGs asked the DOJ to open a security referral to determine if the Department of State inadvertently released Clinton emails that contained classified information. The IGs requested the review after determining that five emails in the trove of tens of thousands Clinton turned over to the State Department contained information that five intelligence agencies claimed was "not marked classified at the time they were stored on her private server but that the contents were in fact 'secret.'" The request for a security referral, according to Secrecy News' Steven Aftergood, "is a recipe for paralysis," and the Archive's Director Tom Blanton says, "The government would be better off dropping any classification claim, both as a matter of security, and of resources."
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) recently posted an official statement on the National Security Agency's (NSA) retention of phone data collected under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. The statement follows the June passing of the USA Freedom Act, which, among other things, ended the NSA's bulk collection of American phone records, instead ordering them to be stored with private phone companies that the NSA will need to obtain a court order to retrieve. After the law's passage, "the Obama administration gained approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to keep the old bulk phone records program going" during the stipulated six month transition period. ODNI's latest statement laid out that, pursuant to the USA Freedom Act, NSA analysts "will no longer be permitted to search a database holding five years of Americans' domestic calling records after Nov. 29." NSA technicians will be able to view the historic phone records for three additional months for "data integrity" purposes. Prior to this week's announcement it remained unclear what the NSA would do with the database of historic phone records it had amassed before the program was upended.
In April the NSA declassified 52,000 pages of documents pertaining to the Friedman Collection, which concerns cryptographer William Friedman, arguably the founding father of the intelligence agency and the US' scientific approach to code-breaking. The documents were subsequently scoured by the BBC, which reports that the documents shed light on American and British intelligence's secret relationship with the leading Cold War encryption company, Crypto AG. Specifically, the documents reveal a secret relationship between Friedman and the founder of Crypto AG, Boris Hagelin – a relationship known as the "Boris Project." The BBC reports that the NSA documents show Hagelin kept "the NSA and GCHQ informed about the technical specifications of different machines and which countries were buying which ones." The BBC further notes, "In one document, Hagelin hints to Friedman he is going to be able 'to supply certain customers' with a specific machine which, Friedman notes, is of course "easier to solve than the new models.'"
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released documents in response to a FOIA request filed by The Intercept this week that show the department monitored the Black Lives Matter movement since former Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot African American teenager Michael Brown last year. Documents show "DHS circulated information on a nationwide series of silent vigils and a DHS-funded agency planned to monitor a funk music parade and a walk to end breast cancer in the nation's capital," begging obvious questions about whether or not this surveillance infringes on First Amendment rights. Last week Vice's Jason Leopold reported, also thanks to documents obtained through the FOIA, that DHS attempted to preemptively stymie the release of any protest surveillance documents concerning the announcement of whether or not Wilson would be indicted because of concerns the documents would be requested under the FOIA.
The New York Times obtained three statements made by Joyce Mitchell – a former employee of New York's Clinton Correctional Facility who pleaded guilty to helping two men escape from the prison – through the FOIA. (While not explicitly stated by the Times, the FOIA was likely filed with the New York State Department of Corrections.) The statements show that Mitchell did favors for one of the convict's daughters, that she performed sexual acts with that same prisoner, and that she snuck "tools past guards for use in an audacious escape from a maximum-security prison."
Over 100 pages of CIA contracting documents were turned over to Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro as part of a FOIA lawsuit. The documents show that the agency paid the contractor Centra Technology, Inc. more than $40 million "for administrative support and other tasks related to the Senate's work [investigating the agency's torture program]. Those tasks included compiling, reviewing, redacting, and then posting to a server set up by the contractor the more than 6 million pages of highly classified CIA cables and other documents about the torture program Senate Intelligence Committee staffers pored through during the course of their probe." Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told Vice, "These documents confirm and offer context for what I said in December: CIA spent roughly $40 million in order to hamper the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA detention and interrogation program, while the committee operated within its existing budget."
A FOIA request for materials on Dick Cheney submitted by Colette Neirouz Hanna, the coordinating producer for the Kirk Documentary Group, recently won the release of never before seen photographs taken by Cheney's staff photographer from 9/11. The photos show, among other subjects, "Cheney watching footage of the World Trade Center attack in his office. Other photos show Cheney and other senior staffers meeting in the President's Emergency Operations Center, or the secure bunker deep underneath the White House."
A 38-page Department of Defense review found "systemic problems with irradiation and testing procedures" for an Army laboratory's handling of anthrax. The review was ordered after reports "that Dugway Proving Ground in Utah inadvertently shipped live samples of the deadly bacteria that reached at least 86 commercial and government laboratories in seven foreign countries, 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia." While the review determined serious problems with Dugway's procedures, the root cause of the inadvertent distribution remains unknown.
Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst convicted of spying for Israel, will be released after serving 30 years of a life-long prison sentence this November. Pollard's supporters have long-petitioned successive presidents for Pollard's release (Clinton only dropped the idea after CIA director George Tenet threatened to resign if he did), but the move remained strongly opposed by the intelligence community. Pollard is currently being released because, "At the time that Mr. Pollard was sentenced, federal law required that he be reviewed for parole after he had served 30 years of his life sentence." A 2013 Archive posting details what secrets Israel asked Pollard to steal, and includes a declassified 1987 CIA damage assessment of Pollard's spying. The CIA assessment notes the specific subjects Pollard's Israeli handlers wanted information on – "primarily for nuclear, military and technical information on the Arab states, Pakistan, and the Soviet Union – not on the United States." Late last year Pollard's Israeli handler, former Mossad agent Rafi Eitan, revealed that Pollard had bungled a pre-arranged escape plan that would have delivered him safely to Israel; Pollard blew his escape when he diverted from the plan and went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. seeking asylum, at which point Eitan ordered the embassy to kick Pollard out in an attempt to avoid further complications.
Happy FOIA-ing!
House Committee Plans September FOIA Vote, New OGIS Head, and Much More: FRINFORMSUM 7/23/2015
The House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform chair, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who earlier this year told the Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy (OIP) Director Melanie Pustay that she must be living in "la-la-land" if she thought FOIA was being properly implemented, informed the National Journal that he plans to have a committee vote on a strengthened FOIA bill in September. According to the Journal, the committee is looking to tighten the bipartisan bill, H.R. 653, by identifying "ways to make agencies face consequences for failing to comply with FOIA requests, and reduce the number of exemptions that agencies can use to justify withholding information." The bill currently amends the FOIA in two key ways: it codifies both that agencies cannot use FOIA's "withhold it because you want to" Exemption 5 to withhold information that is older than 25 years, and states that "records that embody the working law, effective policy, or the final decision of the agency" cannot be withheld under that same exemption.
Jim Holzer, the chief FOIA watchdog at the Department of Homeland Security, will take over as the head of the federal FOIA ombuds office, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) – and not a moment too soon. Prior to the announcement of Holzer's appointment, which was made at this week's Federal FOIA Advisory Committee meeting, the position for leading the small federal office, which is responsible for providing FOIA mediation and compliance services for the entire federal government, had been left vacant for six months. The Archive looks forward to continuing to work with the FOIA ombuds office under Holzer's direction.
FreedomInfo.org's Toby McIntosh recently posted an excellent article examining one of the most controversial aspects of the recently announced "Release-to-One: Release-to-All" pilot project, namely whether or not "first requesters should get a priority look at the documents released before they are made available to the public." Interviewing OIP director Pustay vie email, McIntosh reports that OIP has no position on whether or not to provide first-requesters with a lead time on FOIA releases, noting it is something OIP will be examining throughout the six-month pilot program. McIntosh notes that although sub-components of seven agencies are participating in the program, "Those in the pilot differ in what they post and how they do it," begging broader questions about not only first-requester priority, but also how results of the study will be extrapolated government-wide.
Anticipating protests in response to the announcement of whether or not Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson would be indicted in the shooting death of African American teenager Michael Brown last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) worked on a surveillance plan to conduct of the protests. Vice's Jason Leopold reports – thanks to over 700 heavily redacted pages he obtained in response to a FOIA request – that DHS attempted to preemptively stymie any protest surveillance documents' release because of concerns they would be requested under the FOIA. Specifically, "an employee with DHS's National Protection and Programs Directorate distributed an email on November 11, 2014 reminding personnel to mark all electronic communications 'for official use only' because of 'recent events and FOIA requests.'" FOIA'd documents also show that the agency investigated claims that Muslims had "co-opted" the protests based on "intelligence" from Fox News reporting "on how the Council of American and Islamic Relations (CAIR) was trying to raise awareness about the 2009 shooting death of Luqman Ameen Abdullah, an imam at a Detroit mosque." One document also shows that DHS officers were looking forward to reuniting with old colleagues in Ferguson and St. Louis, with one writing, "Looks like we are working together again," and another, "Long time since [Hurricane] Katrina. LOL."
President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, allegedly presented Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter with a "memo stating that he would have 30 days to make decisions on newly proposed transfers" of Guantanamo detainees at a cabinet-level "principals committee" meeting last week. Carter's delay in transferring the detainees since taking office is prompting anxiety among the Obama administration, which wants to close the facility before the president leaves office in 18 months. Mr. Carter did not commit himself to the administration's 30-day timeline.
US District Court Judge Richard Leon berated the State Department and its Justice Department lawyers over DOS' handling of a 4-year-old Associated Press FOIA request last week. AP received no response from the State Department on its request, which sought records about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's schedules and staffers, including Clinton Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin, now vice chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign, until filing suit. Judge Leon harangued the government's representatives, saying "The State Department, for reasons known only to itself … has been, to say the least, recalcitrant in responding." Leon also told DOJ lawyers that they were responding to questions about why AP's request was being delayed because of State's handling of Jason Leopold's much more recent request for Clinton's emails with "convoluted gobbledygook."
Wired reported recently that a staggering 89% of all wiretaps are fueled by drug cases, an increase of 27% in the last 25 years, and a strong indicator of how the War on Drugs shapes government surveillance. Reporter Andy Greenberg notes "that constant swell in drug-focused wiretaps may help to explain the general increase in all American wiretaps. In total, the count of US state and federal wiretaps has jumped from 768 in 1989 to more than four times that number today. But take out those drug cases, and the collection of wiretaps of all other kinds increased only 29 percent in those 25 years, from 297 in the year 1989 to just 384 last year." Greenberg reports that one of the reasons drug-related wiretaps far outpace others is the money they can generate: "a wiretap costs an average of $39,485 in 2014 according to the latest report—and unlike other types of crimes, those seizures mean that drug cases can pay for themselves."
The biggest revelations from the newly-released Rosenberg grand jury testimony shows that Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, lied about his sister's involvement to conceal the minor role played by his wife, Ruth. The testimony was obtained thanks to a court order in case brought by the National Security Archive and a coalition of Historical and Archival Associations. The most important passages from Greenglass' testimony are on page 12, in which he says, "My sister has never spoken to me about this subject," and on page 30, where he states, "I never spoke to my sister about this at all." Ruth Greenglass' testimony, released in 2008, undermined the core charge against Ethel, "struck the keys, blow by blow, against her own country in the interest of the Soviets." Of the Rosenberg case Brad Snyder says, "This historical import of the David Greenglass's grand jury testimony is bigger than the guilt or innocence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. It is about how the American criminal justice system treats even the most despised and politically unpopular defendants. It is about the role of the Supreme Court in policing the behavior of government prosecutors."
In a huge win for transparency and corporate accountability, Chiquita Brands International lost its bid to hide Colombia terror documents from the public (again) in a suit brought by the National Security Archive. Last week a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should release to the Archive 9,257 pages of records produced by Chiquita to the SEC as part of an investigation of the company's illegal payments to a Colombian terrorist organization, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a group responsible for egregious acts of violence during Colombia's civil war. In April 2011, the Archive published some 5,500 pages of Chiquita's records released by the Department of Justice in response to similar FOIA requests. Those records revealed that Chiquita benefitted from its transactions with both AUC "paramilitary" groups and insurgents from the FARC and ELN guerrilla groups. The records call into question the Justice Department's determination, spelled out in the 2007 plea deal, that there was no evidence of a quid pro quo with the illegal groups.
The Archive's latest posting commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Church Committee investigation of CIA abuses, and details how that probe foreshadowed post-9/11 executive/congressional battles. Documents posted this week show, among other things, that: the White House of President Gerald R. Ford, spearheaded by deputy assistant to the president Richard Cheney, quickly seized control of the administration's response to the congressional investigations; lists of records to which the Church Committee requested access for its investigation were reviewed in detail and Mr. Cheney ultimately decided whether to provide them in each case; and CIA accommodation measures were explicitly designed to keep Church committee investigators away from its most important records.
This week's #tbt document pick is chosen with the recent Chiquita ruling in mind, and is one of the most startling documents released to the Archive in April 2011. This week's #tbt pick is a January 4, 1994, Chiquita memo indicating that leftist guerrillas provided security at some of Chiquita's plantations. The general manager of Chiquita operations in Turbó told company attorneys that guerrillas were "used to supply security personnel at the various farms."
Happy FOIA-ing!
By Michael Barclay
On July 11, 1970, the United States Air Force launched an ATHENA V-123-D rocket from Green River Launch Complex in Utah. While its intended target was the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, it impacted "180-200 miles south of the Mexican border," according to a recently released memorandum sent from the desk of Henry Kissinger, then serving as National Security Advisor to President Nixon. The document cites "abnormal re-entry into the atmosphere" as the reason why the rocket landed in the Mapimi desert, a "sparsely populated" area in the Northeast corner of the state of Durango. While the three-paragraph memorandum may seem as though the mishap was nothing to be concerned about (noting the Mexican Government's "willingness to grant clearance and assist in any search efforts"), the cleanup effort was long, costly, and included the construction of a road through the Mapimi desert to excavate hundreds of tons of soil from the impact site. The scale of the cleanup was due to the fact that the rocket was carrying two small vials of cobalt 57, an isotope used to enhance radioactive fallout with the intention of contaminating large areas of land (commonly referred to as a "salted bomb").
According to a 1971 report from the Office of Air Force History, the ATHENA rocket tests at Green River were part of the Advanced Ballistic Reentry System (ABRES) program. The program "developed and tested promising reentry vehicles and penetration aid devices for use on present and future ballistic missile systems." While the Atlas test flights under the same program "gathered valuable reentry vehicle performance data" that contributed to the development of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV), the Athena launch program was "suspended in July 1968 after three consecutive flight failures." But the report notes that after its reactivation in November of the same year, the program yielded "thirteen successful Athena launches" that "carried a variety of payloads" and aided the development of "reentry vehicles [that] altered their ballistic paths upon command." But despite these advances, "ABRES program funding dropped from $147.7 million to $105 million" between 1966 and 1969, which forced the Air Force "to postpone development of the improved Athena H booster." Since MIRV research and development was the program's main concern at this time, "test range operations—deeply cut in fiscal year 1970…would have to be slashed even more than before." Combined with the Athena program's flight record prior to the 1970 test range budget cuts, the ATHENA rocket misfire that occurred at Green River on July 11th of the same year doesn't seem like as much of an unexpected anomaly as Kissinger's memorandum to President Nixon makes it sound.
In fact, there seems to be a good amount of evidence pointing to the fact that the ramifications of a misfired rocket impacting foreign soil were not only considered prior to the construction of Green River Launch Complex, but were taken seriously enough to halt launch plans at other facilities for fear of triggering an international incident. On August 11, 1963, a memorandum entitled "Report on Peacetime Launch From ICBM Operational Sites" was sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggesting that despite "the limited record of past performance of [the Air Force's] liquid–fueled missiles…we do not have high confidence that such tests would be completely successful." The report goes on to note that "public acceptance of overflight by test shots in the vicinity of our national ranges has been encouraging and the public is willing to accept some risk if such tests appear necessary in the national interest."
Several months later, an Air Force General responded to claims of political and safety concerns by noting that "system reliability can no longer be considered a limiting factor" to rigorous ICBM testing. But within a matter of days, another Air Force memorandum reiterated that the "concern of possible international and political implications" resulting from overflight "remain[ed] as the major constraint against launching Minuteman missiles from existing operational sites at [the] time." While this may seem like an unnecessary concern if the Air Force were to take proper precautions in the construction of its launch sites and testing ranges, the description of an overflight make the author's fears seem well warranted. In reference to the launching of Minuteman missiles from Malstrom Air Force Base in Montana, he notes that "examination of the planned flight profile indicated first stage impact just short of the Canadian border; second stage in the Hudson Bay; with re-entry vehicle impact in the North Atlantic area off the coast of Greenland. Since a malfunction similar to the failure of thrust termination control experienced on the first Minuteman Operational Test launch could result in overflight of Canada and Western Europe with flight termination in Africa, the political aspect [is] of much greater concern." Clearly, this was a scenario worth being concerned about, which is why these tests were eventually fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California.
At the very least, these internal Air Force communications beg the question of why so many ICBM tests were conducted with insufficient funding after their safety and political concerns were made so abundantly clear. A National Intelligence Estimate of the USSR's nuclear arsenal, signed by former CIA Director Richard Helms on October 20, 1966, sheds a fair bit of light on why military strategists were so anxious to begin ICBM testing despite multiple experts advising that overflight was a real and legitimate concern. Their urgency was fueled by protracted concerns of the Soviet Union matching the United States' nuclear force. The 1966 CIA report voiced concerns that not only would the USSR "have reached approximate numerical parity with the currently scheduled US force of ground-based ICBM launchers" by 1971, but that this quantitative parity would allow the Soviets to develop a nuclear arsenal that would be qualitatively superior.1 In this frame of mind, the deployment of "multiple, independently-guided re-entry vehicles (MIRV) and other suborbital or fractional-orbital long-range ICBMs" that boast "a considerable improvement…in re-entry technology" seemed not only inevitable, but swiftly approaching.2 This explanation may seem like somewhat of an oversimplification, but the 131 ATHENA rocket test flights launched from Green River between February 4, 1964, and September 17, 1971, stand as an undeniable testament to the lengths that American policy makers and military strategists were willing to go to maintain a nuclear advantage over the Soviet Union. The fact that these launches happened despite multiple test failures, a dwindling budget, and the looming possibility of an international political incident is further confirmation of the extent to which nuclear force parity had become central to American foreign policy by the beginning of the 1970's.
While it could easily be written off as a military and scientific blunder, the ATHENA V-123-D launch on July 11, 1970, has a very rich back story that has a lot to teach us about the ways in which genuine diplomatic, security, and logisitical concerns can be swept under the rug in the face of myopic policymaking. In this sense, it seems almost fitting that the area of the Mapimi desert that was impacted by the rocket has become much less a symbol of the Cold War arms race than it is a magnet for paranormal and extraterrestrial folklore. Commonly referred to as the Mapimi Silent Zone, locals have latched on to the legends of radio silence and alien sightings as a means to boost tourism in an area that would have had none otherwise. While it is referenced in several news articles and Wikipedia entries, the ATHENA misfire that occurred on July 1970 rarely outshines the reports of UFO's and paranormal activity that it provides a scandalous backstory for.
1. Soviet Capabilities for Strategic Attack, Top Secret, National Intelligence Estimate, Excised Copy, NIE 11-8-66, October 20, 1966. p. 37.↩
2. Ibid. pp. 37, 40.↩
Open Gov Groups Still Interested in OGIS Reviewing Agency Practice of Sending "Still Interested?" Letters; DHS's Mobile FOIA App Misses the Mark, and Much More: FRINFORMSUM 7/9/2015
This week the Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy (OIP), tasked with ensuring government-wide FOIA compliance, issued new guidance on agencies issuance of "still interested?" letters. These are letters agencies send requesters – often years after the request was made – to determine if the requester is still interested in the request being processed. Troublingly, the letters frequently state that if the agency fails to receive a response from the requester, the agency will summarily close the request. The OIP guidance is, on its face, pretty good: it requires agencies to limit the instances in which they send such letters; it requires that agencies provide requesters a reasonable amount of time to respond to the query (30 days at a minimum); and it mandates that requesters should not be disadvantaged if they miss the letter's deadline by only a "reasonable" amount.
The overall premise behind the "still interested" letters, however, is fundamentally flawed. There is nothing in the FOIA itself that allows an agency to close a request if the agency does not receive a response from a "still interested" letter. According to the statute (5 USC § 552(a)(3)(A)), once a request is submitted that both "(i) reasonably describes such records and (ii) is made in accordance with published rules stating the time, place, fees (if any), and procedures to be followed, [an agency] shall make the records promptly available to any person." Aside from settling possible fee disagreements, FOIA does not require any further action on a requester's part after a request has been submitted. While the "still interested" letters can be useful, any guidance that condones an agency closing a FOIA request without legal authority provided by the FOIA is misguided and should be revised.
The silence from the Office of Government Information and Services (OGIS), the FOIA ombuds office, on this issue is of additional concern. In response to several Archive requests for OGIS assistance concerning agencies' practice of issuing such letters (and in some instance only allowing a requester 10 days to respond before closing the request), OGIS informed our office in November 2014 that "On October 30, 2014, a group of organizations including the National Security Archive contacted OGIS about agencies' practice of sending still interested letters, citing EPA, among other agencies. As you are aware, OGIS's review team determined that it will take a close look at this matter." Eight months later OGIS has yet to take any action on this issue, and OIP has taken advantage of OGIS's silence and issued guidance condoning the legality of a practice that has no legal basis in the FOIA.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched an app to submit FOIA requests this week – perhaps a little too quickly. According to Huffington Post Technology and Science editor, Alex Howard, "Instead of launching a better way for the public to make and track requests or teaming up with the Department of Justice to fund work on a universal FOIA request feature at the government's openFOIA website, the federal agency that receives and responds to the largest number of FOIA requests in the country actually made the experience of submitting one worse." Among the app's sticking points are: the microscopic font; the keyboard obscures the text of the FOIA request being drafted; and the fact that the app doesn't retain a user's contact information. Additionally, "The app's permissions, at least on the Android store, state that it requires access to your approximate location." This is according to Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press' Adam Marshall, who went on to say, "There is absolutely zero reason for the DHS to have access to the location of my phone, and I'm not going to install an app from the federal government that allows for that functionality. FOIA is designed to ensure that the public knows what the government is up to, not the other way around."
DHS FOIA funds would have been much better used to make its current FOIA website responsive to mobile browsers rather than creating a clunky, hard to use, unneeded app.
Last week the Senate Intelligence Committee approved legislation that would require social media sites to report content posted by suspected terrorists, although it doesn't require the companies to remove the content. While the committee claims the bill, which doesn't require companies to monitor their sites if they do not already do so, is a "pretty low burden," it's received criticism for being technically difficult – in part because "Social media sites generally do not monitor their sites for terrorism or any other content except child porn" – and vague in its wording. The legislation is contained in the 2016 intelligence authorization act and has not yet been voted on by the Senate.
A hack of the for-hire hacking company Hacking Team has revealed that the FBI, the DEA, and the Army have all bought the Italian company's controversial software that allows "users to take remote control of suspects' computers, recording their calls, emails, keystrokes and even activating their cameras." The Intercept reported this week that emails, financial reports, and other Hacking Team documents show that the FBI's Remote Operations Unit has been using the software since 2011, and that the CIA, the Pentagon's Criminal Investigative Service, the New York Police Department, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were all communicating with Hacking Team about potentially purchasing their software. Hacking Team reported that it had lost control of the controversial software in wake of the hack, saying "it believed anyone could now deploy its RCS software 'against any target of their choice.'"
Multiple Somali and African Union officials have confirmed the existence of a secretive US drone base operating out of Kismayo, Somalia. These officials allege that, "a team of special operators from the Joint Special Operations Command, the elite U.S. military organization famous for killing Osama bin Laden, flies drones and carries out other counterterrorism activities" from the Somali base. The US has yet to acknowledge operating a drone base on Somali soil. The CIA's "substantial presence" in Mogadishu was also recently reported by The Nation, which detailed the agency's training of a clandestine Somali commando force called "Shield."
A United Nations (UN) panel has found that new evidence concerning the September 1961 death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, whose plane was shot down over what is now Zambia, warrants further investigation. A 2013 UN inquiry uncovered "persuasive evidence that the aircraft was subjected to some form of attack or threat as it circled to land." As a result, in 2014 Sweden, Hammarskjold's home country, appealed to all UN member states to disclose unpublished documents on Hammarskjold's death. This appeal was likely "a reference aimed largely at securing the declassification of American and British files, particularly intercepts thought to have been made at the time by the National Security Agency." The NSA continues to withhold two of three 50-year-old documents requested by the Archive regarding the incident on national security grounds. Despite the new evidence and calls for further investigation into the crash, the NSA holds that "files classified as top secret from the National Security Agency would not be released," a sentiment echoed by the British.
David E. Hoffman's "The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal," published this week, relies on 944 declassified CIA cables to help tell the story of Adolf Tolkachev, once the CIA's most valued and successful spy in the USSR. Tolkachev, an engineer and specialist in airborne radar, provided the CIA with "documents and drawings had unlocked the secrets of Soviet radars and weapons research years into the future. He had smuggled circuit boards and blueprints out of his military laboratory." Tolkachev spied for the CIA from 1979 through 1985, before ultimately being compromised, arrested, and executed. A selection of the declassified CIA cables on Tolkachev are available at davidehoffman.com.
Declassified documents recently published by the National Security Archive shed new light on the 2012 creation of the DOD's Defense Clandestine Service, the expansion of Army and Air Force HUMINT operations since 2002, the work of the Iraq Survey Group, and much more. Read the whole story on the evolution of the Pentagon's spy units through the Obama administration here.
This week's #tbt document pick is chosen with the possible re-opening of the Dag Hammarskjold investigation in mind. This week's pick is a 1994 CIA History Staff document by Nicholas Cullather entitled, "Operation PBSUCCESS: The United States and Guatemala, 1952- 1954," and is a narrative history of the CIA's role in planning, organizing and executing the coup that toppled President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán on June 27, 1954. One portion of the document (page 85) describes international condemnation of the plan, noting that UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold charged that "the United States was completely at variance with the (UN) Charter."
Happy FOIA-ing!


text:
Rounding Amounts, the missing cent: with the MODEL clause
Rounding amounts may lead to rounding-issues, I have written how this may be resolved in a previous blogpost using some analytic functions.
Playing around a little bit, I also came up with a method to resolve the rounding difference with the MODEL clause.
To create an example, first let's create a table with only three records in it.
SQL> create table t
2 as
3 select rownum + 42 id
4 from dual
5 connect (more...)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Dennis Pines Golf Course
Box 1419, South Dennis, MA 02660
0 people saved this
Dennis Pines is a par seventy-two, seven thousand-yard championship golf course. It is situated on 170 acres of pine forest land in the Village of East Dennis. Designed by Henry C. Mitchell and opened for play in 1966, Dennis Pines has long been noted as one of the toughest layouts on Cape Cod. Tree lined corridors place a great premium on accuracy rather than distance. Water comes into play on four holes, and the twelfth hole is recognized as one of the most difficult par fives anywhere.
Of Note:
- Amenities: Accessible Facilities
5 Fall Foliage Hikes in the Berkshires
Crisp air, cool mornings, the earthy scent of the forest floor, and exploding colors as...
Search All Listings Here.


text:
This content has been marked as final. Show 14 replies
1. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Ivan Bush Oct 10, 2007 2:34 AM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)Paul,
What do these polygons, with so many vertices, represent in the real world? It must cover a large area.
2. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Paul Dziemiela Oct 10, 2007 9:34 AM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)Well, the polygons I am looking at right at the moment represent water surrounding various Alaskan Islands as part of the national hydrography database. The polygon itself is quite simple but the island represents a hole being very craggy with many inlets and counts about 400,000 vertices - yes its a 400,000 vertice hole. Now the NHD is 3D so that overtops the 349,525 limit. The point is that the authors are using ESRI tools to create these large polygons and then I have to stand hat-in-hand and explain that Oracle has these various limitations. It doesn't seem beyond possiblity to have an SDO_GEOMETRY object with more than one SDO_ORDINATE_ARRAY object within it. It seems like more of a structure thing than a technological limitation. Anyhow, anyone have a snappy response for these ESRI folks?
3. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Ivan Bush Oct 10, 2007 9:55 AM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)Paul,
I have received data with what I thought to be excessive number of vertices, but not the number you are dealing with. Hence it fitted into Oracle.
When I checked the data for redundant points I reduced the number of vertices by a factor of 5. Redundant point, to me, are:
1. Coincident points when you consider the tolerance
2. Sequential points which form a straight line
It would be worth your while doing this. Split your polygons into 2 to achieve this test.
Doing it for real if it helps is a slightly different issue.
Let us know how this goes.
4. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Simon Greener Oct 10, 2007 11:34 PM (in response to Ivan Bush)Keep pestering the Oracle Spatial team for a fix to this problem: I have been one of the only "clashing symbols and banging gongs" on this topic for years.
I too have hit this problem many times (especially as the use of GPS units means greater "precision" objects) and have had to "hack" database schemas to accommodate the need to split sdo_geometry objects (by including a table at the end of a 1:M relationship - very ugly!)
It is not good enough to say to anyone: "Why the big polygon?" and "Change the model" or "Thin out the data".
One example, recently, at GeoScience Australia (Australia's premier data collection agency for national datasets including elevation, bathymetry etc) I worked with bathymetric survey voyage data in which single or multibeam surveys had more than the SDO_ORDINATE limit (the data was 3D which meant that one had only 300,000 vertices to play with).
But, in the meantime, you have to:
* Thin out your data;
* Introduce a second table to hold the split feature;
* Introduce multiple spatial columns in the base table (eg shape1, shape2, shape3 etc).
All not pretty but that is all you can do.
5. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Paul Dziemiela Nov 26, 2007 9:21 AM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)Hey folks,
I am back with another teeth-grinder. I am loading some SSURGO SOILS layers from http://www.ncgc.nrcs.usda.gov/products/datasets/ssurgo/ with polygons representing various soil types. In one dataset (called MUPOLYGON) I have 11 polygons which overtop the Oracle 524,288 vertice limit for two-dimensional geometries. In fact, there is a single polygon representing the bayous of Lousiana which has 3,481,427 vertices! This may be the "mother of all polygons" unless one of you knows of something larger. I can load this dataset via ArcSDE 9.2 using the old ESRI SDELOB and the new shiny ESRI ST_GEOMETRY storage types but it appears that Oracle just is not in the game. Note that even though this polygon is ridiculous in size, I am able to open it in ArcGIS and putter around with it. Has anyone heard anything about redesigning the SDO_GEOMETRY object to hold multiple SDO_ORDINATE arrays? I have quite a few brain cells invested in Oracle Spatial but there is not much I can do in this situation but begin learning the ESRI ST_GEOMETRY functions. It looks - so far at least - like this size limit may be a permanent constraint on Oracle Spatial technology and if my clients want to utilize large goverment datasets as they are, then they need to stay in the ESRI fold. Any advice would be appreciated.
6. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Paul Dziemiela Feb 10, 2008 10:50 AM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)Hey folks,
Thought I should close out this thread with some of the recent events occuring around this topic. At the DC area Oracle Spatial User's Group meeting, my supervisor brought up to James Steiner of Oracle this issue of the VARRAY being too small to hold these large polygons bouncing around out there. At first Jim was a bit skeptical but fortuneately for me some folks from Census chimed in that they had these issues as well. Following up, I submitted to Oracle SR 6696391.993 on the matter and then had our partners at the EPA National Computer Center do the same as SR 6697612.994. I checked with Census and they have not submitted this as an issue. I would encourage anyone else encountering this problem to submit an SR of their own to keep the heat on. You can just copy mine which is what the EPA folks did.
In response to my activities, Jim Steiner got back to me stating that the limitation will "be addressed in a future release". On my SR responses, I was told by "Keith" (who does not seem to have a last name) that "I cannot give you a time frame for this, but expect to see this in a future release, maybe 11gR2."
So for now, my approach to the issue is to remove the offending polygons before bringing them into Oracle. If anyone has better ideas, please post them here.
7. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Paul Dziemiela Jun 17, 2008 2:24 AM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)Time to trot out this horse for another pointless flogging...
I heard from some tinny voices over at the Census Bureau about patch 6087331 for 10.2.0.3 which is now part of the 10.2.0.4/220.127.116.11 releases that allows the SDO_TOPO_OBJECT_ARRAY to be redefined beyond its original 1 million size limit.
It got me wondering just why all these various SDO objects and types have their component VARRAYs limited to around a million in size. I am fairly clueless on the underlying limitations/reasonings. The upper limit for a VARRAY is the upper positive limit for a PLS_INTEGER (the index) which is 2,147,483,647. So in theory the VARRAY that forms the basis of the SDO_ORDINATE_ARRAY object should be able to physically store over a billion 2D points (for example the SDO_LIST_TYPE is maxed out to 2147483647).
Now I THINK (please fire away) the one million limit has to do with the way the VARRAYs are accessed, whereby the entire VARRAY needs to be loaded to change any part of it?? The quote from the user guide section '5 Using PL/SQL Collections and Records' is "You must update or retrieve all elements of the varray at the same time, which is most appropriate when performing some operation on all the elements at once. But you might find it impractical to store and retrieve large numbers of elements this way."
So then is the magic number of 1,048,576 elements the best "gulpable" VARRAY value for the average Oracle instance? Or are there internal functions and java procedures and such that require that limit? I have no idea. Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated as I still get questions about when Oracle is going to allow larger geometries and I am never quite sure what is involved in this upgrade.
8. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?476843 Jul 25, 2008 12:02 PM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)My two cents,
I used to work for a small town (9 square miles). We recieved planimetric data with the street edge of pavement as a polygon coverage. There was one polygon with over 3 million vertices. I attempted to load this into sde using the sdo geometry type many times. Only recently did I read about the limitation. As long as I do not desire to use sdo as my geometry it will load fine you know what it is loaded into oracle in both cases. But it only loads correctly if I don't use sdo. hmm what will my decision be??
Oracle take note.
Change or get left behind.
9. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?matt schell Aug 8, 2008 8:36 AM (in response to 476843)Paul and Brad,
Tinny voice here. I think I roughly follow Paul's attempt to rationalize the varray size limit as a performance issue - that accessing an entire varray of 10million elements is worse than accessing 1million, if thats really how the gulping works. However, I don't really see any evidence of this.
On 10.2.0.4 machine1 we have the new patch to dim the sdo_topo_object_array to 10million elements. I can repeatedly access a geometry with about 76,000 of the slots filled in 30 seconds.
SQL> select count(*) from
2 bas08st09.state a,
3 TABLE(a.topogeom.GET_TOPO_ELEMENTS()) t
4 where vintage = 90;
Elapsed: 00:00:31.62
SQL> desc mdsys.sdo_topo_object_array;
mdsys.sdo_topo_object_array VARRAY(10000000) OF MDSYS.SDO_TOPO_OBJECT
Name Null? Type
----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
On machine2 we have an exact copy of the data, but the patch to increase the varray size limit has not been applied. Basically the same performance.
SQL> select count(*) from
2 bas08st09.state a,
3 TABLE(a.topogeom.GET_TOPO_ELEMENTS()) t
4 where vintage = 90;
Elapsed: 00:00:30.12
SQL> desc mdsys.sdo_topo_object_array;
mdsys.sdo_topo_object_array VARRAY(1000000) OF MDSYS.SDO_TOPO_OBJECT
Name Null? Type
----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
10. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Paul Dziemiela May 3, 2009 9:21 AM (in response to matt schell)Hi folks,
Is there perhaps an award for the longest running unresolved thread? I haven't seen anyone step up here on the forum or in any blogs detailing what went on at the Oracle Spatial Users Conference last week in Tampa. As I was there I thought I should drop a few posts.
During the conference, I asked my usual question about the SDO_GEOMETRY size limits to Dr. Ravada and he responded - note that all these talks were prefaced with the usual disclaimers that nothing they said might actually happen - that 11gR2 would include a database level option for a some kind of "uber" SDO_GEOMETRY that would be allow larger geometries. That's about all I got from him and was never able to catch him in person to elaborate. It sounds like R2 will allow you choose this option but as they did not announce it as an R2 improvement I suspect it has some downsides (will it be compatible with the normal SDO?). I guess we will have to wait and see.
Anyhow, that's the scuttlebutt. If anyone else knows more, please respond to the post.
11. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?758076 Mar 4, 2010 9:23 PM (in response to Paul Dziemiela)Hi,
Are we still in the same boat? I've got an 11g R2 database and still can't load larger geometries (in my case from an ESRI shapefile). I haven't seen anything about an option to increase the maximum ordinates or allow another, bigger SDO geom type as Dr. Ravada apparently suggested.
Scratch that. It is available in 11g R2 and described under section A.3 Increasing the Size of Ordinate Arrays to Support Very Large Geometries of
Edited by: user9215843 on 04-Mar-2010 19:20
12. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Paul Dziemiela Mar 5, 2010 6:24 AM (in response to 758076)Hi Luke,
My environment has yet to move from 10g but the migration is slated to happen this year once the folks at ESRI certify ArcSDE for 11gR2. My understanding is the geometry upgrade essentially swaps out the existing SDO_GEOMETRY object with a new SDO_GEOMETRY object that has now dimmed the ordinates to the max. That being said I have not yet tried it - I am sure the Oracle folks are rolling their eyes considering I have been the primary complainer on the matter in the forums. But the truth is I am really am held up on 10g at the moment.
If you are willing to take the plunge I would think folks on the forum would love to hear about how it goes - certainly I would. I've never seen a single post here on the matter - good or bad - since the 11gR2 release. Clearly there were reasons why the designers of Oracle Spatial back in the day used the 1,048,576 maximum for ordinates. So there must be consequences for changing the model. Or not? The only documented issues surround exporting/importing the geometries, nothing about performance or code compatibility issues.
Great to hear from you.
13. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?844160 Mar 2, 2011 1:03 PM (in response to 758076)I am trying to cycle through some simplified ESRI countries, and put the country polygons into Oracle SDO.
It turns out, that if the country polygon's coordinate pair count is less than 500, I can insert the polygon into an Oracle SDO table. If the polygon has 500 or more, the insertion fails. (There were a couple of weird countries that made it into the table that had a much larger number of coordinates, but they could not be used for anything).
I can create a simple polygon (i.e., no holes) of 500 coordinates, and fail to put the geometry in an Oracle SDO table AND be UNABLE to perform a spatial query (i.e., SDO_RELATE) using that SDO geometry.
If I throw one coordinate away (not the first or last one), I can put the geometry in an Oracle SDO table; also, I can use that geometry to perform a spatial query).
500 is no where near the size quoted earlier in this thread.
What is wrong?
14. Re: SDO_GEOMETRY size limits here to stay?Paul Dziemiela Mar 3, 2011 7:26 AM (in response to 844160)Hi Dr. G,
I guess I am responsible for this thread so I'll quick fire off a response. First of all, this topic is basically closed. The original thread was about Oracle Spatial being unable to handle very large geometries in comparison to competitor products. Oracle fixed the situation in 11gR2 with the new "uber" SDO_GEOMETRY type option. Thus the question, "size limits here to stay?" has been answered. As a community we should ideally create a new threads discussing performance and any got-chas surrounding the new uber geometry. However I am still on 10g and have not tried out the new geometry type myself (I know I know).
All that being said, I don't think your issues have to do with these size limits. A quick review.
"Classic" SDO_GEOMETRY has a maximum 1,048,576 ordinates. It doesn't matter if these define holes or lines or point clouds or whatever, ordinate is an ordinate. So Classic SDO_GEOMETRY maxes out at
* 524,288 2D Coordinates
* 349,525 3D or 2D+M Coordinates
* 262,144 3D+M Coordinates
That can be rather limiting as big things like the Russian Federation can easily top the 2D limit.
Now "Uber" SDO_GEOMETRY has been upped to allow 10,000,000 ordinates creating max limits of
* 5,000,000 2D Coordinates
* 3,333,333 3D or 2D+M Coordinates
* 2,500,000 3D+M Coordinates
I kind of wonder how the folks at Oracle Spatial came up with the 10 million number. Why 10 and not 12 million (easier to divide by 3!)? No idea. The important take-away is the VARRAY technology that back-ends SDO_GEOMETRY must be entirely "gulped" into memory. You can't just read the first polygon ring or just the third string in a multistring, you have to suck in the whole, complete geometry and then do your thing. So I expect polygons with 5 millions vertices to be rather pokey to work with. If anyone has opinions and experiences, again we should start a new thread.
So as these limits are orders of magnitude larger than your 500 coordinates, I think you have something else going on needing a new thread. Maybe post in the new thread how you are "putting" the ESRI data into SDO_GEOMETRY. In my opinion, ArcSDE really needs to be led by the nose to know what SRID to put on the Oracle Spatial Geometry.


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Hotels in Colorado
Popular with groups and couples, this 10-room boutique hotel is set on a hillside just four miles from downtown and a short walk from the ski lifts at Mount Crested Butte. The public spaces are decorated in a classic ski lodge style, with high wooden ceilings and a large stone fireplace.
Housed in a traditional wood-and-stone building, this ski-in, ski-out lodge is located at the base of Winter Park Ski Resort, just over 100 feet from the lifts.
Set on the banks of the Fraser River, this ski-in, ski-out lodge is about half a mile from the base of Winter Park Ski Resort. Beyond the brick-and-stucco exterior, the complex includes one- and two-bedroom condos, all of which are privately owned.
Owner David Alford converted a homestead built by Norwegian immigrants into this country-estate bed-and-breakfast overlooking Blue Lake and the La Plata Mountains.
Trappers Cabin, a private house at Beaver Creek Resort, in Colorado, with four bedrooms, a personal chef, a housekeeper, and a roustabout (general man Friday).
Just a short walk from the ski lifts at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, this rustic-chic lodge is ideal for families and small groups. In the lobby, a mountain landscape painting hangs above a stone fireplace, surrounded by wood paneling and tan leather couches.
To be a standout for families and spa-goers may seem an odd combination, but this 190-room, native-stone-and-timber Park Hyatt at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain (just 200 feet from the peak's ski school) pulls it off with luxury to boot.
Curl up by the lobby fireplace in this rustic, airy, sumptuous lodge with panoramic views of the ski area. All rooms have custom-crafted lodge furnishings and secluded private decks.
A sprawling property designed in Bauhaus style, Aspen Meadows is best known as the home of the venerable Aspen Institute.
A $30 million renovation in 2008 upped the ante at Vail Cascades, where a new deck looks onto an infinity pool, outdoor fire pits are surrounded by rocking chairs, and all spaces boast views of the mountain and Gore Creek.
In the Central Business District, the Hyatt Regency rises high in the downtown skyline with notable features like the glass-enclosed lobby, lounge, bar and restaurant, which mirrors the style of the adjacent Colorado Convention Center.
One of the area's two full-service hotels (the smaller Inn at Keystone is the other) this rare non-condo sits on Keystone Lake with views of mountains and well, condos. Still, a $2 million renovation has helped liven this mainstay lodge.
This former bed-and-breakfast now serves as a rental house for families and groups on ski vacations. Built in the 1880's, the red Victorian building is conveniently located just one block from Main Street, within walking distance of the Peak 9 ski lifts.


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The Vampire Diaries
Currently Airing
Thursdays, 8:00 PM ET on The CW
60 minutes
Based on the Alloy novels, WBTV's "The Vampire Diaries" centers on Elena (Nina Dobrev), a tragic heroine who is the object of passion for two vampire brothers, Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder).
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Damon makes an impulsive decision that threatens to unravel a carefully negotiated deal between Stefan and Lily, so Damon tries to make amends with his mother before things spiral further out of control. Meanwhile, Alaric obtains a mysterious artifact; Matt makes a risky life or death decision; and Caroline uncovers a shocking detail about Stefan's past.
Previous Episode
Season 7 begins with Damon being forced to navigate his new reality without Elena. Meanwhile, Stefan waits for Caroline to sort out her emotions and tries to protect the town from Lily and her family of Heretics, who are wreaking havoc in Mystic Falls. Elsewhere, Enzo struggles to find his place in Lily's new life; and Matt teams up with Stefan and Caroline to put a stop to the Heretics.
Season Premiere
s6e10 Christmas Through Your Eyes
December 11, 2014
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s6e11 Woke Up with a Monster
January 22, 2015
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Woke Up with a Monster
Midseason Premiere
s6e20 I'd Leave My Happy Home For You
April 30, 2015
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I'd Leave My Happy Home For You
s6e21 I'll Wed You In The Golden Summertime
May 7, 2015
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I'll Wed You In The Golden Summertime
s6e22 I'm Thinking Of You All The While
May 14, 2015
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I'm Thinking Of You All The While
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Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take
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Not really specifically for bikes obviously but I've seen several people have good luck using these phone screen protectors on bike frames.
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Deputies Awarded Medal of Distinction
On Thursday evening at the Board of County Commissioners meeting Sheriff Mark Hunter awarded Lt. Katina Dicks and Deputy Brian Lucas the Medal of Distinction. The medals were awarded for their actions on March 7 when they responded to a 911 call of an unresponsive infant, 2 month old Maleigh Robertson. When the deputies arrived […]
Search Warrants Yield Guns and Drugs
On Wednesday, detectives from the Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force served search warrants at residences, 411 NW Bascom Norris Dr. Apt. 104 and 843 NE Catawba St. in Lake City. The warrants were a result of a lengthy undercover investigation into narcotics violations. Columbia County Sheriff's Office SWAT deputies assisted by securing the homes for the […]
Deputies Assist Columbia Correctional Institution
At 5:14 p.m., the Columbia County Combined Communication Center received a 911 call from Columbia Correctional Institution (CCI) in reference to two inmates being stabbed. 911 Center subsequently notified the Sheriff's Office Watch Commander of the incident. Deputies were dispatched to CCI to assist if needed. While en route, CCI updated the 911 Center that […]
Third Annual Fins and Pins Benefit
Join Sheriff Mark Hunter in supporting the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch at the Columbia County Sheriff's Office Third Annual Fins and Pins Benefit on Saturday, April 26th, 2014. The bowling tournament will begin at 1 p.m. at Lake City Bowl, 347 SW SR 247 in Lake City with a free fish fry following at the […]
Lake City Man to Face Multiple Charges
At 3 p.m., detectives with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office arrested Steven Hankins, 51 of Lake City at the conclusion of a seven month investigation. The investigation, which began in September 2013 focused on an employee of Anderson Columbia, Inc. who was suspected of ordering items on corporate accounts and then selling them for personal […]
Media Inquiries
Welcome to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office News Room, where the Public Information Officer (PIO) posts all of the information that they release to the news media. The PIO acts as liaison between news media organizations and the Sheriff's Office. The PIO routinely releases timely and accurate information and respond to routine and "breaking news" media inquiries. News releases can be found on this page. Please direct all media inquiries to:
Murray Smith
Public Information Officer
(386) 719-7510
Additional Links
Recent Press Releases


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San Francisco Marina Motel ReservationsExperience the thrill of San Francisco, California at the European-inspired Marina Motel, located on famous Lombard Street near shops, restaurants, and top tourist attractions. Contact us online or by phone and our friendly onsite reservation staff will provide you with information on rates, lodging options, and availability. Due to our number of rooms, we do not accept group reservations.
Phone: 415-921-9406
Fax: 415-921-0364
Reservations: 800-346-6118
Email: email@example.com
Reservation Policies
- Minimum Stay - A two night minimum stay is required for all Friday night reservations starting April 1st through October 25th.
- Reservations - All reservations require a deposit of the first night stay.
- Check In- Please present the credit card used to make the reservation upon check in.
- Cancellations - To cancel or change your reservation we require 7 days notice prior to the reservation date. Refunds for cancellations or changes to reservations made after the 7 day notice are subject to our ability to resell your reservation. If we are unable to resell your reservation we will not be able to refund your deposit. A $20 cancellation fee is charged for all refunded deposits.
- Deposits will not be refunded to guests who do not show for their reservations.
- We do not offer "rain checks" for cancelled reservations or no shows.
- Pets - 2 dog Maximum, please note, dogs will only be allowed in kitchen rooms, no exceptions. Pet fees are $15 per night for your first pet and $10 a night for your second pet.
- The Marina Motel is a nonsmoking property, this includes ANY type of smoke! Guests who smoke in the rooms will be charged a $250 cleaning fee.


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Review | Dates to Watch For | Follow-Up | U.S. Economic Calendar | Consensus Estimates | Coming Earnings | Coming U.S. Auctions
President Obama is an ardent fan of natural-gas-powered vehicles. He's been promoting NG cars and trucks since March 2011, when he delivered a speech at Georgetown University that sent gas futures higher. He has ordered that the federal fleet be entirely hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles by 2015. Last week his administration finalized a 54.5-mile-per-gallon standard for cars and light trucks by 2025 to spur the development of alternative-fuel vehicles. And in July, the Department of Energy awarded $30 million in research grants to expand the use of NG in vehicles. Still, the road ahead for NG vehicles remains bumpy. Investors should proceed as they would down a rutted dirt lane—with lots of caution.
Slow Going: Natural-gas vehicles are on a rough road unless gasoline stays consistently above $4 and NG-fueling stations proliferate. William Waitzman for Barron's
Diesel trucks and gasoline-powered cars remain far more economical than NG equivalents. This is an obstacle to converting the nation's two million 18-wheelers to alternative fuels. The "Boone Pickens" bill that would have given $5 billion in subsidies to buyers of big NG trucks was passed in the House, but died in the Senate because conservatives said it picked winners and losers—and steeply raised fees on families using NG to heat their homes.
Still, utilities are investing in NG fueling stations. New Jersey Resources njr -0.9765625% New Jersey Resources Corp. U.S.: NYSE USD30.42 -0.3 -0.9765625% /Date(1444424569337-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 322778 AFTER HOURS USD30.42 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4451 P/E Ratio 17.1864406779661 Market Cap 2654207987.54883 Dividend Yield 3.155818540433925% Rev. per Employee 2957580 More quote details and news » ' New Jersey Natural Gas unit is spending $10 million for five to seven of them and predicts a return on equity of 10.5%. Atlanta Gas Light, an AGL Resources gas 0.16244314489928524% AGL Resources Inc. U.S.: NYSE USD61.66 0.1 0.16244314489928524% /Date(1444424554850-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 501266 AFTER HOURS USD61.66 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 17259 P/E Ratio 19.657601938342843 Market Cap 7391632398.47534 Dividend Yield 3.3084657800843336% Rev. per Employee 862730 More quote details and news » unit, has a similar program. As for NG vehicle makers, the demand curve is likely to be steady but slow, absent $4-a-gallon-plus gasoline and the rapid proliferation of fueling stations.
-- Jim McTague
Next Week: Preview
Monday 3
Markets are closed in the U.S. and Canada in observance of Labor Day.
Vice President Joe Biden visits Iraq for talks on security and Syria.
Tuesday 4
Auto sales for August should rise at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14.2 million units, says Steve Blitz, chief economist, ITG Investment Research. He sees the ISM manufacturing index for the month as marginally weaker.
The Democratic presidential nominating convention begins in Charlotte, N.C.
LyondellBasel Industries LYB -2.1025641025641026% LyondellBasell Industries N.V. Cl A U.S.: NYSE USD95.45 -2.05 -2.1025641025641026% /Date(1444424482382-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4948917 AFTER HOURS USD95.45 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 223674 P/E Ratio 10.353168318979543 Market Cap 45422812500 Dividend Yield 3.2687270822420116% Rev. per Employee 3028780 More quote details and news » replaces Sears Holdings SHLD -2.102446483180428% Sears Holdings Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD25.61 -0.55 -2.102446483180428% /Date(1444424400320-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 562609 AFTER HOURS USD25.54 -0.07 -0.27333073018352205% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1639 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 2789702367.76123 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 139791 More quote details and news » in the S&P 500 index after the close of trading.
French President François Hollande meets with Italy's Mario Monti.
Quebec's separatist party is seen winning provincial elections.
Campbell Soup CPB 0.5135442392880945% Campbell Soup Co. U.S.: NYSE USD51.28 0.262 0.5135442392880945% /Date(1444424595514-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1111581 AFTER HOURS USD51.28 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 9293 P/E Ratio 23.30909090909091 Market Cap 15900906084.1883 Dividend Yield 2.433697347893916% Rev. per Employee 416598 More quote details and news » reports results.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travels to China.
Wednesday 5
Nokia unveils its Lumia line of smartphones using Windows Phone 8.
Blue Nile NILE -0.8125% Blue Nile Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD31.74 -0.26 -0.8125% /Date(1444424400305-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 98110 AFTER HOURS USD31.74 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 12492 P/E Ratio 37.34117647058824 Market Cap 368320007.324219 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 1605840 More quote details and news » is among the online retailers presenting at the Citi Technology Conference in New York.
Microsoft msft -0.7165437302423604% Microsoft Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD47.11 -0.34 -0.7165437302423604% /Date(1444424400221-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 26831029 AFTER HOURS USD46.94 -0.17 -0.36085756739545743% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1769603 P/E Ratio 32.26712328767123 Market Cap 379504202513.108 Dividend Yield 3.0566758649968158% Rev. per Employee 787898 More quote details and news » presents at the Citi Technology Conference.
A Novartis NOVN.VX -0.766655868696685% Novartis AG ADR U.S.: NYSE USD91.9 -0.71 -0.766655868696685% /Date(1444424434107-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1660231 AFTER HOURS USD92.1677 0.2677 0.29129488574537543% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 35333 P/E Ratio 26.057615969150504 Market Cap 245967759841.525 Dividend Yield 2.900921653971708% Rev. per Employee 370259 More quote details and news » new-drug application for a cystic fibrosis treatment is reviewed by an FDA advisory committee.
Roche Holdings, ROG.VX -1.1729323308270676% Roche Holding AG ADR U.S.: OTC USD32.86 -0.39 -1.1729323308270676% /Date(1444429200000-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 806448 AFTER HOURS USD32.87 0.01 0.030432136335970784% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 797831 P/E Ratio 23.934736688761017 Market Cap 226825917151.102 Dividend Yield 3.0550060864272672% Rev. per Employee 574344 More quote details and news » KKR Financial, and Maxim MXIM -1.6142735768903993% Maxim Integrated Products Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD34.74 -0.57 -1.6142735768903993% /Date(1444424400315-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2005256 AFTER HOURS USD34.74 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 11392 P/E Ratio 48.25 Market Cap 10046860250.0606 Dividend Yield 3.454231433506045% Rev. per Employee 279620 More quote details and news » hold investor days.
Humana HUM 0.4104270660011093% Humana Inc. U.S.: NYSE USD181.04 0.74 0.4104270660011093% /Date(1444424633191-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 501971 AFTER HOURS USD181.04 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1477 P/E Ratio 21.38385580307576 Market Cap 26723164292.038 Dividend Yield 0.6407423773751657% Rev. per Employee 914579 More quote details and news » presents at a Deutsche Bank investor meeting.
Thursday 6
The European Central Bank is likely to agree on and detail its prospective asset-purchase program, says Barclays. It is also likely to push for new measures to support bank finance. President Mario Draghi has said the ECB may need to adopt exceptional measures to maintain price stability.
The Bank of England is likely to keep interest rates on hold, Barclays says.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports on job-cut announcements for August.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid.
Suzuki 7269.to 3.475103734439834% Suzuki Motor Corp. Japan: Tokyo JPY3990 134 3.475103734439834% /Date(1444420800000-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 20m) : 3206200 P/E Ratio 24.59319526627219 Market Cap 2163398437000 Dividend Yield 0.5012531328320802% Rev. per Employee 53613800 More quote details and news » unveils a minivehicle wagon.
Friday 7
Look for nonfarm payrolls to rise by 100,000 in August, Blitz says. He notes that the number may be distorted by some seasonal factors that made July's number look better, but likely were given back in August. An uptick in the unemployment rate is possible.
Kroger KR 0.07894736842105263% Kroger Co. U.S.: NYSE USD38.03 0.03 0.07894736842105263% /Date(1444424420114-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 5755775 AFTER HOURS USD38.2 0.17 0.4470155140678412% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 125883 P/E Ratio 19.409002755945696 Market Cap 36990492797.8516 Dividend Yield 1.1043912700499605% Rev. per Employee 271960 More quote details and news » posts quarterly results.
Shareholders of Glencore glen.ln 8.11634349030471% Glencore PLC ADR U.S.: OTC USD3.903 0.293 8.11634349030471% /Date(1444429203000-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1141777 AFTER HOURS USD3.91 0.007 0.17934921854983346% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1205092 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 26563217856.06 Dividend Yield 6.149116064565718% Rev. per Employee 1036540 More quote details and news » and Xstrata vote on Glencore's proposal to use its shares to buy the 66% of Xstrata it doesn't own. Some big investors have balked at the terms, and Qatar has said it will vote against the deal. Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg recently said, "It's not a must-do deal."
Old Dominion odfl 2.101179893324713% Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD63.17 1.3 2.101179893324713% /Date(1444424400039-0500)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 537049 AFTER HOURS USD63.17 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 8459 P/E Ratio 18.363372093023255 Market Cap 5277511097.70202 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 177767 More quote details and news » splits, 3-for-2.
Brazil's markets are closed.
Sunday 9
China issues a host of key indicators, including consumer prices, industrial production, and the trade balance.
Greece's finance minister meets with the head of the troika inspection team.
Week's Highlight
Friday 7: The August jobs report will dominate the U.S. data landscape, though it is likely to be distorted by some seasonal adjustments.
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Make like a glamorous Hitchcock heroine with this structured Alexander McQueen tote. Invest in thisfuture classic now and you will treasure it forever. Shown here with Christian Louboutin shoes, a 3.1 Phillip Lim blouse, Proenza Schouler pants and a Landver necklace.
Black leather patent structured tote with square top handles. Alexander McQueen bag has a gold tone trim across the top, a gold tone zip and logo-embossed hardware, a zip on the inside and gold tone feet.
Product code: 38556 - Need help? Contact us


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Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge-Americas Best Value Inn
- Free continental breakfast, free WiFi, and free parking
Main amenities
- 48 smoke-free guestrooms
- Outdoor pool
- Lobby fireplace
- Meeting room
- Tour/ticket assistance
What's around
- Hans Christian Andersen Museum (0.1 mi / 0.1 km)
- Old Mission Santa Ines (0.1 mi / 0.2 km)
- Mission Santa Ines (0.3 mi / 0.5 km)
we just spent a weekend there . the hotel room was clean, cute, and quiet. the staff was…
Room was basic but clean. Room could have used a quieter toilet and mini frig and walls…
Enter dates to check prices
Hotel Info: 866-539-8117from $74
- Room, 1 King Bed
- Room, 1 King Bed, Smoking
- Room, 2 Double Beds, Smoking
- Room, 2 Double Beds
Also popular with travelers from the USA
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 48 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 3 floors
- Check-in time starts at 2 PM
- Check-out time is 11 AM
Required at check in
- Credit card or cash deposit required
- Government-issued photo ID required
Travelling with others
- Pets not allowed
Extra people
- Roll-away beds available, charges may apply*
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free WiFi in rooms
- Free self parking
- Accessible parking
Other information
- Smoke-free property
In the hotel
- Free continental breakfast
- Outdoor pool
- Spa tub
- Golfing nearby
- Hiking/biking trails nearby
- One meeting room
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Fireplace in lobby
- Disabled parking
- Accessible path of travel
In the room
- Coffee/tea maker
- Fireplace
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Pay movies
- Cable TV channels
- Free WiFi
- Free local calls
- Refrigerator
Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge-Americas Best Value Inn's small print
Also known as
- Americas Best Value Inn Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge
- Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge Americas Best Value Inn
- Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge-Americas Best Value Inn
- Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge-Americas Best Value Inn Motel
- Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge-Americas Best Value Inn Motel Solvang
- Svendsgaard's Danish Lodge-Americas Best Value Inn Solvang
The name on the credit card used at check-in to pay for incidentals must be the primary name on the guestroom reservation.
Optional extras
Rollaway beds are available for USD 10 per night
We have included all charges provided to us by this hotel. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book.